This is the coolest business in one of the hottest areas we’ve ever visited in the USA.
Moab, Utah is just east of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The two days we were there the temperatures were between 112 and 118 degrees F. and our expensive Motel 6 room had no working air conditioning (which the management seemed to think was just fine since they were downstairs and we were assigned to the third floor). After we complained they moved us to a different room that was just the same.
People were competing with each other out in the parking lot of the motel for the three or four spaces in the shade. Doing laundry was a one-machine game that lasted until 3 in the morning and started up again at 6. Signs on the feeble ice machine warned us not to take more than a glass-full of ice at a time. It told us to “be considerate” but we could only think about how inconsiderate the Motel 6 was for not having enough ice. As a result, we avoided Motel 6’s as much as possible for the next several weeks.
While we were there, there was a very troublesome infestation of white gnats`both day and night in Moab. The insect cloud was so thick I couldn’t read the gasoline pump at one of the very few gas stations, and breathing was difficult. These gnats didn’t just fly around, they landed all over everything.
Some of the people in Moab are worried that the state of Utah might build more roads through there and ruin their natural resources. We don’t think they have much to worry about since the place is surrounded by at least a hundred thousand square miles of very hot and very cold desert wasteland with no water, no gasoline, no food, no nothing. In short, bring your resources with you because you can die out there. You people in southern Utah know what I am talking about . . .
Did I mention the landscape? Unbelievable– a geologist’s heaven! The formations are from another world entirely, and quite beautiful, especially if you like red rocks. There is a smell to the minerals that is unique also. More pictures will be posted in the next few weeks.
